Loud as a Whisper
by This is My Truth Tell Me Yours
Summary: "Harry had never told his friends any of that. He didn't even understand why he was saying so much now, but something had shifted inside him and it was difficult to stop." Harry had After Ron went away, Harry and Hermione were quiet for a long time. Until an incident at a parking lot brought them closer once more. No Ron bashing. Hary and Hermione friendship.


_**Disclaimer:** The ideas are mine. The characters and everything else in the Harry Potter Universe belong to JK, one of my favourite authors_

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_Goodnight my sweetheart  
Until we leave tonight  
Hold me in your arms_

**_William's last words, by Manic Street Preachers_**

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It was the first time they'd left the camping site since Harry had been injured at Godric's Hollow. Hermione had stretched their supplies as much as she could, but they urgently needed more food.

Usually, one of them would have gone to the supermarket (Hermione most of the time), while the other one stayed back, watching the campsite. However, and this constituted the main source of their anxieties, Harry and Hermione were reduced to one wand and it wouldn't be safe to stay behind unarmed. That was why the two of them were under the invisibility cloak, making their way to the supermarket together.

When they were in the middle of the parking lot, however, something made them halt. There was a group of boys directly ahead of them, just after a red car. They seemed to be arguing.

The tallest kid was holding some sort of action figure and laughing while several of the others joined. The only one who wasn't laughing was a skinny blond boy who seemed to be trying to get his toy back from the leader of the group. The others ridiculed and laughed at him repeatedly. A fat one on the far left of the circle even pushed him around.

"That's awful," Hermione whispered, but before she had even finished Harry had stepped out from under the cloak unceremoniously and marched towards the boys. Hermione gasped. She looked around quickly to check that no one had seen Harry appearing out of thin air but before she had even finished her scan she heard Harry talking to the boys ahead.

"Leave him alone!" Harry shouted, and the boys stopped pushing the little one around almost instantly. "Is there a problem here?" Harry asked seriously, and for a second his voice sounded so grown up he almost didn't recognize himself.

The boys were younger than he was, and even the tallest of them did not seem older than twelve or thirteen years of age. The bully measured Harry with his eyes for a moment, wondering if he could take him in a fight… He probably decided he could not win, for, after a few seconds, he threw the action figure on the pavement and walked away, signalling the others to follow him. Harry watched until they disappeared around a corner, then he turned to the little boy that was still on the ground.

Harry offered him a hand and helped him up, while Hermione – who must have concluded it was safe to come out of the invisibility cloak at some point – picked up his toy and gave it back to the boy. It was some sort of superhero action figure neither her nor Harry were familiar with.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked.

The boy didn't answer. He seemed petrified. Then, after a second or two he said "thank you" with nary a sound and ran away as fast as his short legs allowed.

Harry and Hermione were silent for a long time that evening. They had their dinner in silence and Harry went to bed shortly after that, but he couldn't fall asleep. He tossed and turned for at least two hours before he finally gave up on trying to fall asleep and sat up straight on his bed.

They'd had a lot of evenings like that since Ron left.

"Hermione?" Harry called. "Are you asleep?"

"No," Hermione answered quietly.

"Do you want some hot chocolate?"

"Okay."

Harry conjured up some flames to boil the milk and then he added a few spoons of the chocolate Hermione had gotten for them at the supermarket. By the time he got back, Hermione was already seated at the table in the corner of their tent. Harry placed the mugs on the table and took a seat across from her.

"I know I shouldn't have gotten out of the invisibility cloak," he said finally, in an apologetic tone.

"I don't think anybody saw it," Hermione said slowly. "_This time,_" she added thoughtfully.

They'd packed their campsite and changed locations as soon as they'd gotten back from the supermarket. Hermione insisted on it, and given what had happened recently at Godric's Hollow, Harry was in no position to protest.

"Why did you do it, Harry?" Hermione asked finally. "I know what they were doing to that little boy was awful, but still… It was so risky…"

"I know," Harry sighed. "It's just— that used to happen to me all the time."

"What?"

"That. What was happening to that little kid in the parking lot."

Hermione didn't say anything. She just waited, holding the hot mug in her hands to keep her fingers warm.

"It was usually my cousin and his friends," Harry continued, "His friend Peers was usually the one who held my arms back while the other ones took turns beating me up."

"Why?" Hermione was horrified

Harry shrugged

"Because they could I suppose. They were all so much bigger than me, and my cousin never liked me much."

"What about your aunt and uncle? Why didn't you tell them?"

"They wouldn't have cared," Harry smiled sadly. "They didn't like magic, especially my aunt. I never knew why she hated magic so much. She was my mum's sister, but I don't think they liked each other very much. I guess my aunt thought she could squeeze Magic out of me if she was strict or something."

"That's absurd!"

"They made me sleep in the cupboard under the stairs until I was eleven," Harry had never told his friends any of that. He didn't even understand why he was saying so much now, but something had shifted inside him and it was difficult to stop. "Then, when my letter from Hogwarts arrived they gave me Dudley's spare room upstairs. They used to lock my school stuff in the cupboard every summer. I had to work on my homework in the dead of the night. It was kind of fun, I suppose. Ron was right, you know? This is easier for me than it is for you. I have been through this before…"

"What do you mean?"

"This," he made a large gesture indicating their tent. "Being lost, not having enough to eat… Sometimes, when I did something magical by accident – the way kids do, you know – my uncle would lock me in the cupboard for days at a time without anything to eat. The summer after our first year he installed a cat flap in my bedroom so they could push soup cans inside every day. He paid a man to fit bars on my window that summer. They didn't want me to go back to Hogwarts."

"Harry that's awful! Did Dumbledore –? He couldn't have known!"

"I think he knew… He talked to the Dursleys last year. He thought he was protecting me or something. It's not like it mattered. There wasn't anyone else besides them. I mean, there was Sirius, I suppose, but he was in Azkaban, and then there wasn't even him anymore. I don't have any family. Ron was right about that too. I'm all alone."

Hermione reached out and held Harry's hand over the table. She gave it a little squeeze.

"Harry that's not true. Didn't you see the graffiti on your house at Godric's Hollow? Did you see how many people are on your side?"

Harry lifted his eyes to look at his friend for a moment, but he remained quiet.

"I am here, aren't I?" Hermione asked finally.

_Yes, but for how long_, Harry thought to himself.

"You know I am not going away, don't you?" Hermione asked, almost as if she could read his thoughts. "I see the way you look at me sometimes, Harry. I know you are frustrated because it seems like we're not getting anywhere. I get frustrated too. But I am not going to let you do this alone. I told you this at the labyrinth in the third floor corridor on our first year. I meant it."

"I'm sorry about Ron," Harry said after a while, his hand still holding Hermione's over the table.

"I'm sorry too."

"I should have been there for you," Harry said averting his eyes. It was not until the words started coming out of his mouth that he felt how much those thoughts had been weighing on him. "When we left the riverbank and you were crying. I should have done something. I just walked around casting spells like I couldn't see you."

"Oh Harry, it's okay..."

"No. Not it's not. I hear you crying at night, Hermione… I don't… I don't want you to feel like you can't do that in front of me… I mean… I want to help you… You the closest thing to a sister that I've ever had…"

Before Harry could say anything, a mass of curls covered his face and he realized Hermione had her hands around his neck and was holding him tight. He held her back. It dawned on Harry for the first time that Hermione's situation was not that different from his own. Her parents had moved to Australia, and they didn't remember ever having a daughter. In the wizarding world, Hermione didn't anybody. Much like Harry, she was all alone.

_No, you're not_, Harry thought, holding her a little tighter. _You have me_.

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_**Author's note:** Harry's friendship with Hermione is one of my favourite things in the series, and I think it's one of the aspects the movies really managed to improve upon. I would love to get some feedback on this story... Any other fans of this friendship out there? _


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